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Blue Chip Journal - June 2019 edition

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FPI Financial planning

FPI Financial planning for all The new FPI CEO has big plans Lelané Bezuidenhout, CFP® professional, was recently announced as the new CEO of the Financial Planning Institute of Southern Africa (FPI). The FPI is a Recognised South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) Professional Body as well as the licensing authority for the CFP® marks in Southern Africa through an agreement with the Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB). We spoke to her about trends in the industry and what she hopes to achieve for the Institute going forward. On 1 June 2019, Lelané Bezuidenhout assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer at the FPI. Bezuidenhout has 20 years’ experience in the financial services sector. She began her career at a major insurance company where she played various roles especially in the FAIS space. She then joined the FAIS Ombud and gained further expertise in this field. She steadily and systematically climbed the learning pathway and completed her Post-Graduate Diploma 18 www.bluechipjournal.co.za

FPI in Financial Planning and became a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER®. She’s a proud wife and mother of two boys aged 23 and 17 and she loves nature, often volunteering at Rietvlei Nature Reserve outside Pretoria. While she respects the 40-year heritage of the FPI and the crucial role it plays, she acknowledges that the team needs to modernise the Institute, ensuring that it continues to set and uphold professional standards in an age of constant disruption and consumers questioning the value of financial planning versus automated advice. Financial planning for all Bezuidenhout’s first challenge and opportunity is to stabilise the FPI from the inside. The Institute had a bumpy 2018, with some enterprise risk management issues that had to be dealt with. The board recently adopted the King IV Code on Corporate Governance. Among other changes, the new code will bring about greater stakeholder inclusion in corporate decisionmaking – for better, more sustainable outcomes. A more personal challenge for Bezuidenhout is her desire to raise awareness about the value of financial planning. Ultimately, she hopes that financial planning subjects will become part of the high school curriculum, thereby bolstering the profile of the profession and making it an appealing career choice at an early age. Getting young people on board is non-negotiable: “Our membership base is ageing and lacking transformation,” she says. “It’s important that we focus our attention on younger professionals across all population groups in South Africa.” Indeed, the vision motto for the FPI is “financial planning for all”, as the Institute looks towards 2025 and beyond. Bezuidenhout adds: “We need to ensure that the CFP® curriculum and competency profile is updated to deal with the disruptive technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The human side of the financial planning and advice business is more important than ever – artificial intelligence doesn’t understand human psychology and emotion. At the same time, advisors need to stay up to date with the latest fintech solutions. We must not fear the unknown but embrace it to enhance our business offerings to our clients.” Professionalising the industry Some of the major changes to have occurred in the advisory space in recent years relate to compliance and legislation. With Bezuidenhout’s experience in these fields, she is well-placed to guide the FPI and its members in this space. “It feels as if we are stuck in the eye of a regulatory storm that has been hitting us since around 2002. There is a constant update of regulations from all sides, and it seems like it is never going to stop. But these changes are very necessary to ensure that full effect is given to Twin Peaks regulations and the recent circulated COFI Bill,” says Bezuidenhout. She continues, “The FPI has been and continues to be very involved in working streams at both National Treasury and the FSCA as part of consultation processes ensuring that these regulations focus on professionalising the financial services industry and furthering consumer protection and consumer education.” Barrier to entry Another issue that Bezuidenhout wishes to address is the perceived barrier to entry and access into the financial planning profession. “FPI has recognition of prior learning (RPL) mechanisms in place to ensure that access and entry into the financial planning profession is possible not only via the normal certification route, but also through our Challenge Status Examination route. “We recently reduced the number of years of relevant financial planning experience needed by candidates that hold any relevant NQF 8 qualification and who want to challenge the CFP® professional competency examination (PCE) from 10 years to five years. Should the candidate be found competent in the CFP® PCE, then he or she has access to apply for CFP® professional membership.” Candidates who wishes to obtain professional membership to the Institute via this route can apply for access to the upcoming CFP® PCE via www.fpi.co.za Protection of the term Financial Planning and Financial Planner There seems to be confusion in the consumer space with regards to who can call themselves a “financial planner”. “FPI is actively seeking to protect the term ‘financial planning’ and ‘financial planner’ via legislation (refer to RDR proposals). We recently updated our RFP designation from Registered Financial Planner to Registered Financial Practitioner to ensure that the only designation that is relevant to Financial Planning and Financial Planner, is the internationally recognised CFP® professional designation and that the underlying qualification for a financial planner is pegged at an NQF 8 level,” says Bezuidenhout. Bezuidenhout ended by adding that she is very excited about what the future holds and that the FPI is here to serve its members and the professional, but cannot do this without the support of loyal and dedicated members. She invites all who want to provide comments on what they would like to see the FPI stop doing, continue doing and start doing by emailing her with your comments at CEO@fpi.co.za Lelané Bezuidenhout, CEO, FPI www.bluechipjournal.co.za 19

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